Semiconductor nanowire lasers have attracted intense interest as promising compact, low-power coherent light sources for on-chip applications, many of which (e.g., imaging, multiplex communica­tion, data storage) desire high beam quality and spectral purity—conditions that can be satisfied by single-mode operation in nanowire lasers. However, due to the lack of mode-selection mechanisms, most reported nanowire lasers exhibit multimode behavior.

In general, GaN-based nanowire lasers could enable applications such as nanoscale optical probes, nanolith­ography, and nanoscale optical chip elements. Arrays of GaN-based nanowire lasers could help provide high efficiency lighting for displays and solid-state lighting. Understanding and controlling the optical emission through careful design and fabrication as demonstrated in George’s work is an important step toward all nanowire-laser-based applications.

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Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-program laboratory managed and operated by Sandia Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lockheed Martin Corporation, for the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DE-AC04-94AL85000.